Amerika

If the Right has an equivalent the impotent “raising awareness” of the Left, it is the idea of hopelessness. Conservatives adore negative headlines, so that they can throw vegetables at the screen and then retire, secure in their viewpoint but not in their future.

Think of the average stodgy conservative you know. Probably older, probably male; he like to watch Fox News or read The Wall Street Journal. Every conversation begins the same way:

You won’t believe what those crazy Leftists are doing now! They are trying to make transgenderism a national passtime! It just grinds my gears. This country is going to hell in a handbasket. There really is no hope. People are just… shrugs …just broken!

You can distill this to three simple words: I GIVE UP.

After this, the conservative has himself a six-pack, goes to bed and then wakes up the next day to work, work, work all day. He goes to church on Sunday. He waves the flag and praises the veterans. He reads conservative books, watches conservative television, and rants with his like-minded friends about how bad everything is. And he does nothing else.

Conservatives relish stories of social decay like ordinary people enjoy pornography. For them, it tells them that they are right and everyone else is wrong. This is all they need, since their philosophy is based in the personal morality of mass religion. The question is not reality; it is the self.

In other words, they are materialists and individualists just like the rest.

If the Alt Right has done one thing that has shaken the system to the core, it has been re-inventing conservatism to be focused on history, myth, legend and future instead of finding reasons to yell at the television screen right now.

The conservative has always been a dying breed. As the old saying goes, one is liberal in youth and conservative in old age. By old age, they are beaten down by the world and believe in inertia above all else. Nothing will ever change, they reason, and so all they can do is be outraged and keep plugging away at those jobs, churches and patriotic events.

Renovation came to conservatism after recognizing that, much as mainstream conservatives have been captured by the Establishment, independent conservatives have been captured through their personal philosophy of hopelessness. They do not want solutions; they want reasons to be right, so they can keep piling up money and enjoying a luxury lifestyle without interruption.

Conservatism as a principle — realism mated with a transcendental desire for the best possible outcomes — wins out over all else. In the hands of the herd, it is destroyed just as thoroughly as anything else, and turned into a personal philosophy of being better than other people. It will not be sad to watch that die.

Tags: conservatism, conservatives, hopelessness, impotent rage, republicans